Hawk and Dove: Consumption
by Emmazing15
Summary: Five years after the events of 'Hawk and Dove', the mutants have settled into their lives of being hometown heroes. But all good things must come to an end, and the MGGB receive a distress call from their friends in the US. While helping the Trifecta deal with a threat that could be the world's first super villain, their ranks are shrunk by a sickness that only infects mutants. AU
1. Pencil it in

**WARNING! READ HAWK AND DOVE FIRST. If you haven't, you will be very confused by this.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the DC characters of Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on.**

* * *

Under the streets of London there were secrets. Underground clubhouses where there were no rules- or so they thought. These places were teeming with illegal activity and wanted criminals, which amounted to some pretty dangerous dealings right under the feet of tourists and Londoners alike. Well, at least that's what they told him, considering he'd never been to one of these places himself.

A man, in his early twenties, unbuttoned his suit jacket as he sat down at the bar of one of these illegal establishments. Other men in suits just like his were also sitting along the counter, most of them noticeably older. They all had grayed or graying hair and smartphones clutched in the hand that wasn't holding tight to a glass of alcohol. The young one simply had a pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes and his iPhone. It was good cover and made him feel cool.

"We're in position, Hawk," chimed a female voice in his ear. Damn, that name made him feel important to this day. He wore the word Hawk like a title, especially on missions. Friends and family just called him Dan.

He pressed his phone to his ear to appear as though he was speaking into it. "Me too."

"Do you see Brent Smooth?" she asked.

Dan glanced around; looking particularly bored, and he spotted a rather portly fellow in the back of the room. He had a woman on either side of him in his booth. "Yep. Back left corner, round booth," he supplied and brought his free hand up to adjust his sunglasses. They came to life at his touch, the lenses lighting up with diagnostics. "Both are androids on the inside and… looks like they're alive on the outside. Gross, they're actually cyborgs. Body guards."

"Classy," a separate male voice snorted. Just hearing it made Dan crack a smile.

"We're here if you need us," the girl added.

"Copy that," he said and tucked his phone back in his pocket. Around the same time, the bartender wandered over. He looked suspicious; obviously someone new coming in wasn't very common around here.

"What can I get you, sir?" he asked.

Dan deliberated for a few moments. "A quadruple of your best whiskey, if you would," he replied.

The bartender nodded slowly. He produced a glass. "What's your name, son? Haven't seen you around here before."

"Vernon Dudley."

Laughter peeled in his ear, but it was quickly hushed. "Vernon Dudley, really?" A different male voice, this one higher pitched than the last. Dan didn't answer.

"Well, Mr. Dudley," said the bartender, "What's your business?"

He slid a tall glass of whiskey over to Dan. As soon as his hand came in contact, it started to sweat. "Pyrotechnics," he said evenly.

"That's unique," the bartender continued. Dan watched the man's left arm move under the counter. Something clicked, softly, so quietly it would have been missed if someone had coughed at the same time. He knew it was the safety of a gun. Mr. Bartender was onto him.

"It's in very particular demand. I like seeing things go up in smoke," said Dan over the lip of his glass. He had yet to actually drink it.

The bartender hummed. "You might want to talk to our Mr. Smooth. He's a large buyer of things of that nature. Has a thing for robots."

Dan turned in his seat to look at Brent Smooth once more. The man looked less occupied this time, and raised his glass of amber liquid towards Dan when he noticed he was being looked at. Smooth's file blinked in the corner of Dan's left lens. Dishonorably discharged from the Royal Navy after stealing weapons and selling them, although he kept doing so to this day. He was also rather talented at biomechanics, which included making cyborgs. Dan turned back towards the bartender, only to find the barrel of a Gloc pointed right in his face. Dan's expression remained trained, though his heart hammered.

"No ballistics dealer would have given his name flippantly. Who are you really, Mr. Dudley?" the bartender demanded.

Fuck. Dan glanced at the others seated at the bar. They looked on as if this was just another day. He gave the bartender a small smirk.

"I'm compromised," he replied. Comprehension dawned on the bartender's face and right before he pulled the trigger, Dan tipped over his quadruple whiskey and snapped his fingers over the spill. It went up in flames the next instant, spreading across the alcohol and down the bar. There were angry screams around him as Dan reached through the fire to wrench the gun from the bartender and empty the magazine into the blaze. Dan turned away as the bullets started to explode in pops of gunpowder, and he started talking rapidly into his comm.

"I need backup, send in the Phantom and Mercury to round up the rest of these thugs," he said.

"Yes, sir. What about Smooth?" said the girl worriedly.

"I've got him."

"Dan-"

"Trust me, Zoe."

She said nothing more as he headed across the room. Through the smoke rising from the burning bar counter (why was it wood, anyway? Idiots) he could see that both of Smooth's women were on their feet. Each one had guns in their hands and no doubt a microchip in their brains for easy control.

"I need to have a conversation with your boss, ladies," he said evenly, pushing his glasses onto his head.

"Back away," said the girl on the right without emotion.

Dan pursed his lips. "You may be mostly robot, but fire will still burn you. _Out_ of the way," he demanded through his teeth. Behind him the doors burst open and his teammates filed in, looking like a massive group, when all but two were just clones. He still smelled fire, and heard the other criminals in the room swearing and making threats.

"I will only say it one more time," said the other cyborg woman.

"Better listen to her, kid," Brent Smooth piped up.

Dan groaned dramatically. "I hate when people call me kid. Can't you just come with me? You're surrounded," he said, gesturing to the club around them.

The fat man just swirled his glass around and laughed. "I wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I just came quietly," he replied and knocked back the rest of his glass, "Shoot him."

Quick as a flash, Dan ducked as the guns went off. All right, perhaps he should have thought more before he tried to talk so much. Just as he was about to raise his head he felt the temperature change, and then he saw the puffs of cold fog.

Over the bang of gunfire, shouts of men, and the crack of ice Dan could still practically _hear_ Phil's smirk. "It sounded like you could use some help."

Dan rose to his feet with narrowed eyes. "I said I had it," he retorted.

"You told Zoe to trust you," Dove pointed out as his ice crept up each of the cyborgs' gun arms, "You never said anything about me."

Dan pursed his lips. "Thanks," he said rather begrudgingly, but forced himself to focus on the mission, "Do you have these two, er, _ladies?_ "

"They'll soon be icicles. Make sure their boss doesn't get away," Phil replied.

"That's the plan."

They had both noticed Brent Smooth was trying to make a getaway. Dan was on his tail, and he threw his hands out to put a fire between the crime boss and his exit. It licked hotly at the mat on the floor and yellowed ceiling tiles. The fat man staggered back, just barely keeping his eyebrows from singeing.

"Stop fighting and you won't be hurt," said Dan calmly.

Smooth pulled a gun. "Obviously they've told you nothing about me, _Hawk_ ," he spat the name like an insult, but it just made the flame behind his back burn brighter.

Without a change of expression and full heat, Dan grabbed Smooth's wrist and wrenched it to the side amidst the surprisingly high-pitched yell of pain. It smelled of burning cloth as he snapped the gun away and sent it sliding across the floor. Dan's fire shrunk to nothing but smoke as he pulled his captive around to cuff both hands behind his back.

"By order of the MGGB, you are under arrest for the theft and resale of military weapons," he said, "I take it this isn't your first rodeo and you know your rights?" All he got in response was a grunt. Dan shrugged. "No skin off my back," he added and marched him right out of the club and into the street.

Now the night was lit up with the red and blue lights of police cars. Dan led Brent Smooth up from the club and onto the street, where Scotland Yard officers jogged over and took him away.

"That took you half the time it would have taken us," said the officer on the left, "This is one is slipperier than an eel."

"He always got away before we could nab him," agreed the one of the right, looking relieved.

Smooth scoffed. "Not my fault you're all mediocre," he snapped.

"I'd shut it if I were you," said the first officer, tightening her hold on the criminal's arm while they walked towards a squad car.

He opened his mouth to retort again, but Dan just snapped his fingers and lit a tiny flame on his thumb. One look at it shut him right up, and Smooth got into the car without another word. Dan shut off the heat and shook the hands of each of the officers before the car pulled away.

Almost as soon as it was gone, he heard his name being called. Dan looked over just in time to see Zoe jogging towards him, ponytail bouncing behind her. "Is everything done?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Yep. Phil is taking care of the bystanders, while Troye and Joe are taking care of the others in there. At least I hope there are."

"They are," she assured and flicked the headset that was hanging around her neck, "Troye's clones freaking them all out bought enough time for Joe cuff them. Once Scotland Yard gets in there, they'll all be taken away too."

"Brilliant." He ran a hand down his face, feeling drained. "I think I might just go home and sleep for twelve years."

Zoe gave him a look. "You might be crucified if you do. You and Phil are having lunch with the prime minister tomorrow, and Louise went through so much to arrange it."

Dan frowned even deeper, if that were possible. The phrase 'meeting with the prime minister' still made him nervous years later. "Can't it wait twelve years?" he grumbled.

"Not our fault prime ministers are hesitant to meet with you two," Zoe pointed out with a knowing grin.

He rolled his eyes. "Canada says no _one time_ and no one will let the joke die." She laughed and put her hand on his elbow, leading him back towards their car to go back to the base.

Phil was the last to arrive. He squeezed in beside Dan, which pushed the latter into the middle seat and basically onto Troye's lap. Scowling, the brunette folded his arms. He hated the hump. Phil pushed his hands through his hair, closed his eyes, and leaned his head back against the seat. Dan slouched a bit, and besides for Zoe and Joe chatting, the car ride was quiet.

The fatigue came at no surprise, even though this was nothing different than a normal mission for them. Drug and crime lords often were too smart or too rich for Scotland Yard to take them in on their own, so the MGGB's arsenal of abilities and their special collection of MI5 agents were often utilized. While they were a government run agency, and received their missions from higher up commands, Dan and Phil were still allowed (and even encouraged) to operate everything. They assigned teams, they oversaw training, and they were advocates for new mutant research. The research is what got them their new base of operations; a gorgeous tower in central London.

As the building rose into view, Dan could feel a significant weight lift off his shoulders. Although he technically didn't live at the tower, he felt like he did. The team spent most of their time there, especially trainees who actually got room assignments while they learned if they were from out of town. Now, after four years of using the base, it was basically home. Their old place in the mountains lived on, but was usually entirely empty.

Once the car pulled to a stop, a handful of agents jogged out to take care of the car and take in Zoe's report. She was usually the one who wrote everything up for the Director General of MI5, Andrew Varner. She was the only one who stayed back, everyone else walked as quickly as they could into the building.

Dan and Phil were almost immediately swarmed.

Someone sidled up beside Dan, a tablet in the crook of her arm. "The applicants for the third tier still haven't been looked over, and they're kind of freaking out," she told him.

"How many are there?" he sighed while Phil looked over with interest.

Dodie Clark tapped a couple things on her tablet. "Ten. I looked over them with Jim, he said they all look promising, especially the physical talents. Carrie and I had classes with them today, we couldn't get them to focus because they were so antsy."

"Did you tell them we couldn't possibly take them all?" Phil frowned. He hated saying no. The MGGB will train anyone with mutant abilities, but only the best will eventually get to join the team. The applications are really only for filing purposes; the demonstrations are the important points. If someone can perform their abilities well, they are accepted to the third tier of the MGGB, with opportunities to move up in the ranks as their skills increase.

Dodie nodded. "They're enthusiastic. Carrie is very good at sugarcoating," she replied.

Dan pursed his lips, looking down at his feet as he walked. He turned to Phil, who was walking at his right shoulder as always. "Do you want to take the elementals?" he asked.

His partner lit up. "Yes!"

Dan turned back to Dodie. "We'll look over the applications and schedule demonstrations tomorrow after our meeting. There aren't any mental talents applying, right?"

"No, sir," she shook her head once.

"Excellent," he said, "Then we'll pencil it in."

Dodie looked mollified, and then they all entered their elevator. Phil took care of other questions that were fired at them, which gave Dan the chance to lean against the far wall. It was completely made of glass. As he went up, he could see the lights of London getting smaller and it made him smile. He helped make that happen. His team helped make them all feel safe. Plus, the glass was cool and Dan was feeling claustrophobic.

Dodie, and most of the others who had stuck around, all got off on the fifth floor. The fifth floor were training facilities organized by ability classification, in this case three broad themes; physical abilities such as Dodie and Alfie, elemental such as Dan and Phil, and mental such as Marcus and Emma. Each trainee's specific instructor determined smaller categories. The system took months to figure out, especially and most specifically by Dan and Phil considering Louise came up with most of it. Now it was like clockwork.

Dan and Phil were the last in the lift, and they got off on the top floor. At first the plan was that both boys would have their own offices, such as Louise and PJ and other top tier members got. It was Phil who deposed that idea, with the reasons that it would be hard to communicate if they always had a wall and doors between them. So, the top floor of MGGB tower became just an open concept. Hawk and Dove each had a desk, and there was also a kitchenette and tables and chairs and couches. Not only did they do work, but they also did interviews and meetings, and not to mention video game tournaments on their own floor.

As soon as they were off the elevator, they went separate ways.

Dan went right to his desk to see if he could find those applications Dodie was talking about. He probably put them under something because he was dreading having to look through them. Phil went to the control panel on the wall beside the elevator and darkened the tint of their windows, so no one could see inside. Then, on his way to his own desk, he started to strip off his combat suit.

Without looking up, Dan asked, "How did it go with those androids?"

"Their wiring didn't do well in subzero temperatures," Phil replied after he had pulled off his top, "They stopped working and I could hand over the bodies to MI5. They're hoping they can find any others Smooth might have made-"

"They should ask-"

"Louise. I know. Some agents are coming by to see her the day after tomorrow, because tomorrow she's spending the day with Marzia and skin samples."

Dan grimaced at the thought, but then brightened when he stumbled across the file of third tier applications. He flipped it open and immediately started to whine. "I don't want to do this."

Phil had his combat suit completely off now. When he didn't receive a reply, Dan looked up at him to see the suit in a pile on the floor and Phil tugging a hoodie over his head. Dan raised an eyebrow, waiting. When Phil's head appeared, he cleared his throat and responded. "You said you would do it tomorrow."

"I know," the brunette said, "But if we don't look over these now we won't be setting up demonstrations until tomorrow evening."

Phil frowned. "We'll be sat with the prime minister for hours, won't we?"

"Probably."

He groaned and dropped dramatically into his desk chair. Dan closed the file, stepped over the clothing pile, and sat at the edge of Phil's desk. Phil opened one of his eyes. "It's past 10 pm, Dan."

Dan nodded. "Yep."

"I want to sleep."

"You mean you want to watch anime until two in the morning."

"I was thinking four, but your suggestion gives me more hours of sleep." Phil wiped at his nose with his sleeve. This did not go unnoticed by Dan, and he was quick to grab his partner's wrist. Either surprised or frozen, he didn't move as Dan examined his sleeve. It was clean.

Dan sprang up and went for the combat suit on the floor. Phil called out a protest, but it was already done. Dan held out the top in his hands, and he could see little brownish dots down the front of it, and a definite streak across the wrist of the right sleeve. Dried blood. Dan must not have noticed it in the dark.

He gestured with the offending piece of clothing. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

Phil wrung his hands, now sitting up. "Because you would react like this," he replied softly.

"I think I have a right," Dan retorted, "This bleeding is becoming more and more frequent, and it can't be a good thing. You're trying too hard."

"I can't just not try hard. This is my _job_ ," he implored.

Dan sighed. "I know, but you're hurting yourself. Why won't you let Louise look at you more closely?"

"Because-" Phil cut himself off with an exasperated sigh. "I'm fine! They're just nosebleeds, and I have better things to do. _We_ have better things to do."

"But-"

" _And_ Louise is a genius, yes, but she's not a medical doctor. I trust her with my life, but she's never been trained and if someone is going to be looking around, I don't know, my brain then I want someone who went to med school," Phil continued defiantly.

"Fine, that's fair. I just worry about you, Phil," Dan conceded, "We should go to the hospital and do it."

Phil pursed his lips for a moment. "Maybe." Dan stared at him until the file of applications was snatched out of his hand. "Let's get started, yeah?" Phil continued, "Since you want to get this done before tomorrow morning."

"You said you were tired," Dan pointed out and Phil simply opened to the first application.

* * *

"You said you were tired."

"Well, you said they had to be done by this morning."

"I said I _wanted_ them done by this morning, it wasn't life or death."

"In Dan world, _everything_ is life or death!"

"I can't read your mind, Phil!"

Dr. Rogers cleared her throat loudly, causing the two boys to cease their argument. Suddenly embarrassed and very pink, they shifted in their seats to face the therapist instead of each other.

"While I'm glad you're getting your grievances out in the open, why don't we try to talk though this a bit slower. Maybe a bit quieter as well," she said with a gentle smile, "Now, Mr. Howell, why don't you tell me what this is about?"

Dan took a breath. "We've had a pile of applications for the MGGB sitting on my desk for days, and we were putting off looking through them. Last night, a team member brought up that the applicants were getting antsy, so after a mission I asked Phil if we could read them. Because they've been sitting there. Forever."

"And I said I was tired," Phil contributed.

Dan waved his arm. "And then we got into a very small argument about Phil's nosebleeds, which he refuses to get checked out, even though I think he's overexerting himself."

"Maybe I'm just prone to nosebleeds," Phil interjected.

"Have you ever been prone to nosebleeds before?"

"… No."

Dan flailed his arms in an I-rest-my-case motion.

Dr. Rogers regarded them over the rims of her glasses. "Continue the story about the applications," she said.

Dan cleared his throat. "Right, well, after we talked about that Phil took the applications and said we should start reading them so we can make appointments this afternoon. We have a lot to do today, and I didn't want to still have them undone."

"And you did say you didn't want to," Dr. Rogers directed the statement at Phil.

He nodded. "Yes. But I also knew we needed to get them done sooner rather than later. But it was also late…"

"This is where the argument starts," Dan added, "How am I supposed to know if he really wants to get work done or if he's just appeasing me?"

"You could ask…" Phil murmured, but Dan just looked over and glowered.

The therapist sat up and put down her clipboard, full of notes which Dan could tell were all about the relationship problems he had with Phil. He avoided looking at it and instead opted for the thread sticking up from her blazer. "This is what I'm thinking, after your weeks of coming here and talking with me," she explained, "For the sake of this, let's just call the MGGB a business. Often I've seen when couples run a business together, they have a hard time turning it off. Do you understand what I mean by that?"

"No," the boys replied in unison.

She smiled a little. "It means you have no line in between work and play. When you two come home from a mission and talk about medical problems like Mr. Lester's nosebleeds, you're having a normal couple conversation. But, at the same time you were thinking about applications, which are a definite work issue, and then used them to deflect from the other difficult topic. I believe that at this point, that's where the majority of your problems are coming from. So, for next week, I'd like the two of you to develop a line between your work relationship and your home relationship. Because it should be different," she instructed, and by the end she was writing down this conclusion on her legal pad.

Dan and Phil exchanged a worried look. "Okay," Phil replied with a nod.

"Okay," Dr. Rogers said as she rose to her feet, "Then I will see you next week. I hope you had a helpful session."

Dan and Phil left the office building silently. The tension in the elevator could have been cut with a knife. This was normal now. Dan's never come out of there feeling too great. Then again, he's never known anyone who actually went to couple's therapy before.

"So," Phil piped up when the lift opened on the bottom floor, "We have to sort out our work versus home, huh?"

Dan let out a breath. "Yeah. Guess so," he replied tersely, "I guess emotional maturity isn't something we can just pencil in anymore, huh?"

He looked up and met Phil's expression, which was still creased with worry. Dan knew they were worrying about the same thing: their work relationship and their home relationship have _never_ been separate. They had each other when they didn't have a home to go back to, but that had only happened because of their mutations (which could now be classified as their work). They had a lot of sorting to go through.

Like usual, they exited the building and walked towards the Underground stop a few blocks away. They weren't talking, or touching, and Dan supposed they could both be thinking of what the hell they were going to do for the next week. Was therapy supposed to be this hard?

Their silence was interrupted before they could descend to the Underground station. "Hawk and Dove!"

They turned. A group of kids in school uniforms were hurrying over, phones out and ready for photos. Immediately, Dan and Phil turned on the charm and were all smiles as they approached.

"Hi, guys," said Phil brightly. Some of the girls in the group squealed, their cheeks flushed red.

The kids, who had apparently stopped on their way to school, huddled around and asked for signatures and photos. Dan and Phil, being much taller than them, bent over to be in every selfie and smiled happily. They answered questions and signed anything that was shoved on them, before Phil said they had to go to school. Eventually, only one was left. He waited beside Dan, shifting his weight nervously.

Dan tilted his head. "What's up, mate?"

"Er, I want to say thank you," he said, his voice shaky. He didn't meet Dan's eyes, instead looked at his shoes. "My sister's apartment building was on fire the other day, and some of your team helped get everyone out. They weren't even in uniform, so I knew they were just helping because they could. So tell 'em thanks."

Dan smiled, touched, and looked at Phil. He was smiling too, a happy sort of smile that hasn't come around very often lately. Dan touched the boy's shoulder. "I'll tell them. But that's what we're here for. To help."

The boy looked up and nodded. He smiled and muttered a quick thank you before running off to catch up with his friends. Phil touched Dan's back, giving him a little jolt of surprise.

"That's why we have to make this work out," he said, close to Dan's ear, "For them. And the team."

Dan nodded. "I know. And we're trying," he said.

Phil's hand dropped back to his side, but his expression didn't fall. "We are. Let's go," he said, leading the way to the tube stop. Dan looked back down the pavement where the kids had disappeared. When he turned back to follow, he was grinning again. Phil was right, admittedly this time.


	2. Emotional Maturity

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the DC characters of Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on.**_

* * *

"Remember when I said to pencil in emotional maturity for today?"

Phil cracked a smile. "Yes."

"It isn't happening." Dan promptly pressed his forehead to the table in front of him, groaning pathetically.

Reaching over to pat his back, Phil sighed. "We only have a few more," he paused, "Four! We have four more."

Dan lifted his head and glared around the room. It was just a gym; the one they used specifically for demonstrations. But right now it felt like a prison, because although it hasn't been a particularly long time, it seems like they've been watching for hours.

"Right then," Dan muttered, picking up his pen and once again focusing on the next applicant, "Next."

Phil raised his voice. "Next one, Zoe!"

In the following moments, Zoe opened the gym door and blonde guy tall enough to rival Hawk and Dove headed in. He also seemed just as awkward with that height as they did.

"Hi, Evan," chirped Carrie from the table beside the boys. She and Alfie have been sitting in since they moved onto physical talents; Carrie also taught lessons to most of the applicants.

Evan smiled and waved. "Howdy."

Dan and Phil looked at each other and then at Evan's application. "You're American?" asked Dan.

"I feel like we should have remembered," Phil continued. They liked to sit in in training sessions sometimes, and they must not have paid close enough attention.

"Well, I came here to study abroad when your whole debacle happened," the hopeful answered, waving his hands at them, "And I never left because I loved it here so much. So I wanted to join, of course, and the Trifecta was a bit difficult to reach from New Jersey so… here I am."

"You're in the right place, mate," Alfie added, "So, let's get this started, yeah? Quick and painless."

Evan nodded once. Then, without warning, he reached down and stripped his shirt off. Dan and Phil both recoiled in surprise, and then Dan looked down at the evaluation form sitting in front of him for some kind of comfort. That's when he noticed that Evan had filled in 'flight' under the ability box. He looked back up just as a pair of grey, feathered wings unfurled from Evan's back.

"Oh, that makes more sense," Phil whispered in Dan's ear. He nodded in reply.

In terms of Evan's demonstration of his ability to control his powers, there wasn't much to show. The wings were large enough to lift him off the ground and take him around the room, and he also told them how he went so long hiding them (home birth, not much public exposure, lonely school life; typical for most mutants) and that he's never had a problem using them. Alfie and Carrie supplied that most of his lessons were combat training. The boys thanked him for his time and sent him on his way. They just had to exchange a look before they knew that he was in for sure.

"We don't have anyone who can fly!" said Phil excitedly.

"Those _wings though_ ," Dan agreed with wide eyes, "I wonder if they molt. I hope we become good enough friends so he lets us touch them."

"I bet they're soft."

"Next!" Carrie interrupted loudly. The boys sat back and put on identical pouty expressions. They had a schedule to keep, sure, but that was no fun.

Next a girl came in, small and obviously shy, and she reminded Dan of Dodie just by the way she carried herself. Phil was the first one to pipe up. "Bethan?"

She nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Don't be nervous, love, everyone here is super nice," Carrie told her gently.

Phil put on one of his megawatt smiles, which was probably cheating when it came to encouraging someone. He just radiated so much happiness that he could probably convince anyone to do anything. And that seemed to have just the right effect on Bethan, because her smile grew and she set to work.

She walked across the room with a purpose, which was the first interesting thing, and then when she reached the wall she _kept walking._ She continued to walk so she was parallel to the floor. She paused and looked back at her evaluators, a little hopeful smile still on her face. Carrie and Alfie looked impressed, but unsurprised considering they taught her. Dan and Phil, however, both had slack jaws.

Carrie seemed to take notice of this. "Keep going," she prompted.

Bethan continued to walk up the wall until she was standing on the ceiling. Her hair and her cardigan hung down towards the floor while the rest of her just stood there as if this were normal. The boys continued to gape at her.

"You can come down now," said Phil, his tone flat with distraction.

"Also, you're in," Dan added, marking it off on the form in front of him.

"Dan!" Carrie admonished. They were officially supposed to send out acceptances to each new member, but they were too busy being blown away to really care about that at the moment.

After Bethan thanked them and left the room, Dan turned once again to Carrie and Alfie. "Real quick, how are her combat skills?"

"She passes," Alfie replied with an amused expression.

"Great. I want to make sure I didn't just guarantee a spot to someone who can't fight."

Later that same day, once their demonstrations were finally over and they had time to eat something, Dan and Phil went to the basement in their combat suits. The suits were only worn on two occasions: missions and their monthly tests with Louise. Each month she checked up on Dan and Phil's mutations, and while there haven't been any major changes, she kept it up. It's been two years.

The MGGB's labs got the entire basement floor. Similar to the top, it was completely open, with equipment and lab tables and anything else Louise demanded they have. It all looked a little freaky to Dan, but seeing the MGGB seal all over the equipment helped make it feel a little homier.

As Dan and Phil walked in, Louise's voice echoed through the room, but she couldn't be seen. "How is it looking, Peej?"

Dan looked around. Finally, he spotted PJ standing behind the test chamber on the right side. That was the one Dan always stood in. The chambers looked a bit like small, glass space ships with tubing and thermometers on the inside. They were specifically designed for these tests that the boys had to participate in, and were often called antechambers. There used to be a reason, but now that was unclear since the first one Dan stood in promptly melted after the first test.

PJ pressed the metal panel back over the place where he had been repairing it. "Good to go," he said, giving Louise a thumbs up. From where she stood in the observation deck, she gave one back.

Dan crossed his arms as PJ rounded the antechamber. "Are you sure we're good to go?" he asked hesitantly.

PJ waved his hand, which would have been covered in lubricant if he were anyone else. The technopath didn't even need a toolbox. "A couple tubes were just unattached. Considering this one is yours, we couldn't let that sit or you might burn the whole building down," he replied, patting the corner of the machine with his hand. With Louise's designs, PJ assembled both antechambers by himself. He was very proud of them, and Dan had felt horrible when he ended up completely ruining the first model.

"Can't have that," Dan agreed. PJ winked teasingly and walked away, leaving him and Phil alone on the floor. "I'm not looking forward to this," he grumbled; hopefully low enough so Louise couldn't pick it up.

Phil shrugged. "It's in the job description."

"I know, I know, I got myself into this," Dan sighed. He looked at Phil a moment. "I think we should come up with a different way. It'll make you bleed–"

"Dan," his partner interrupted quickly, "Remember what Dr. Rogers said. We're at work."

Dan pressed his mouth into a line and looked away. "Right…" he mumbled. He looked around and grabbed a cloth from a nearby lab table. "Take this in with you."

"Is this sanitary?" Phil said, studying the cloth apprehensively.

"Please," Dan implored, "For piece of mind. And so you don't bleed all over the inside of the machine."

Phil sighed and cracked a smile. "Alright. I'll keep it with me."

Louise tapped her microphone, sending a dull but annoying noise echoing around the lab. "Ready when you are, boys," she told them.

Dan and Phil exchanged one more look before each going into their respective chambers. When Dan pulled the door closed on his, it hissed to signify it was locked airtight, and a little spike of anxiety flared up in his chest. He hated being locked up in a small space. But, he had a task to do, so he normally didn't think about that fact for very long.

The silence stretched for a few more seconds until he heard Louise's voice again. "Alright, everything is set. Remember to build gradually."

Dan closed his eyes and took his first deep breath. Heat started to pool in his palms and spread into his fingertips, which was normal. After another exhale, black smoke puffed out with his breath, and the heat started to spread through his whole body. He had to really push through this step to keep actual flames from growing over his limbs. This test wasn't about studying how much flame he could produce; it was to see how hot he could raise his body temperature and simultaneously that of the atmosphere around him.

Dan's hair started to move with the heat waves, as if there was a breeze. One last breath. In for three, out for three. The chamber was clouded with black smoke, and the heat spread in the air around him. No doubt his visage would be distorted, like a mirage. He wouldn't be able to sneak a peek at Phil even if he wanted to.

Soon, an automated voice that sounded a lot like Louise informed him, "Initiating reversal."

 _Oh fuck-_

And then Dan was drenched in water. At the same time the black smoke started to filter out through the vent that slid open in the top of the chamber, and the water ran down into the drain on the floor. The smoke was replaced by a copious amount of steam, and Dan couldn't even think of trying to see again until he got out of the chamber and released all the extra steam.

While Dan was dripping wet and slightly annoyed, Phil emerged from his chamber just as dry as when he went in. Besides for the cloth pressed under his nose with a growing red stain, he was fine. Dan did his best to ignore it.

"Can we _please_ find a better way to cool me down quickly?" he called to the observation deck. He waved his arms for emphasis and sent droplets of water flying. "I hate this."

"Would you rather be sprayed with foam like a grease fire?" Louise asked in response, her head slightly tilted, "That wouldn't work as well and there would sure be _a lot_ of it."

Dan pouted. "No."

"Then water it is, fire boy!"

He dropped his head back and groaned. Water dripped from his hair and dribbled down his neck, giving him an uncomfortable chill. When he lifted his head, Louise was approaching with a towel in her hand. Dan wrapped it around himself while Phil walked over.

"How do we look?" Phil wondered, still trying to staunch his nosebleed.

Louise studied him a moment with a thoughtful expression, then answered. "Well, not a whole lot of change, which is good. Dan stays near the same temperature nearly every time, 720.76 Kelvin which is around 620 Celsius. Which is quite hot."

Dan grinned. "Sweet."

"Phil, however," Louise said, her eyes darting to bloody cloth as he pulled it away from his face, "has actually been getting steadily colder in each test. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. Your temperature has been dropping each month, and I have a feeling your nosebleeds have been becoming more frequent."

Phil glanced over at Dan for a moment and sighed. "Yes," he admitted.

"There must be a correlation. We'll run more tests and figure this out, but perhaps in the meantime go to the hospital?" Louise continued. While she made to leave the lab, Dan gave his boyfriend a meaningful look that loosely translated to 'I told you so'. Phil narrowed his eyes and just looked away.

Outside the lab while they walked together, Dan sidled right up beside Louise without touching her with his wet towel. "Soooo," he drawled, "How does it feel to know you're getting married in two weeks?"

Louise smiled and turned pink, but tried to hide it behind her hair. "Surreal," she replied.

"I'm wearing a pink suit, I hope you're ready," PJ added from behind them. Phil chuckled quietly.

Louise looked over her shoulder to give him a look. "I'm holding you to it."

"Oh, please do."

"Can't believe you won't let us be in the wedding," Dan continued.

Louise huffed, already exasperated. She probably couldn't count the number of times Dan and Phil complained about this on one hand. "I told you! We're not having groomsmen or bridesmaids. Matt's having his brother as best man, and I already asked Zoe to be my maid of honor. That's all, no more changes."

"It's not fair you like Zoe more than us!" Phil whined.

"Oh please," Louise said with a laugh.

"You said this was all because you want a small wedding," Dan pointed out, "but you'll have so many guests, there's _no way_ this wedding will be small."

Louise frowned. "Well, I couldn't choose who to take off the guest list without feeling guilty. So, yeah, it grew just a bit," she said sheepishly.

Phil moved to walk on Louise's other side, a bounce in his step. "I'm really excited for the Trifecta to get here! It's been nearly a year since we've seen them."

Ever since their help with cleaning up London after the MI5 incident, the American Trifecta has developed a very close relationship with their British counterparts. Dan missed out on their one trip to California (his grandmother turned 90), but they come over to visit quite often. Members of the MGGB, especially the upper tiers, have made pretty good friends in a couple Trifecta heroes. Hence why a good number of them were invited to Louise's wedding.

"Tyler and Connor are kind of freaking out," Dan chuckled, "They keep–"

The blaring of a siren cut him off. They only had one, and that was for emergencies. Dan and Phil exchanged a quick glance before they went sprinting back to the lab for access to a computer, wet towels and bloody clothes forgotten. Louise and PJ were hot on their tail.

Phil was the first one to a computer, which was already booted up and showing them location coordinates. Once he clicked in, the siren stopped. PJ handed each of them a comm and Phil asked, "Who's responding?" Dan pressed in beside him. Voices answered in quick succession.

"Mercury."

"Stronghold."

"Selkie."

"Retrograde."

"Pathwave."

Joe, Alfie, Zoe, Marcus, and Caspar. A good force.

"What's the emergency, Selkie?" Dan prompted.

Zoe spoke quickly and efficiently, as she was their main connection to local law enforcement all over the country. "Officers were dispatched in Bristol after university students reported loud groaning noises in the library. Shortly before they arrived, supports gave way and the ceiling began to cave in. Everyone got out okay, but things such as lampposts and cars have started being pulled down as if by a giant magnet. We have reason to believe this is mutant activity."

Dan drummed his fingers against the desk. "Bristol. Which is the fastest way to Bristol?" he asked PJ.

He was already on his tablet. "I'm programming the directions into your bikes now, they're the fastest," he replied.

Dan nodded once and then turned to Phil. He continued. "Everyone who's responding convene on the location that PJ sends you. And be quick about it! Universities get mad when we destroy their stuff."

When the boys arrived on the scene, Alfie and Zoe were already there. They were in deep conversation with one of the police officers. Phil jogged over to catch up, and Dan surveyed the wreckage of the university campus. No wonder they had reason to believe this was mutant activity: lampposts were bent nearly in half, cars were turned over on their sides, and railings were pulled up from their supports. It looked like a giant magnet rolled through the quad and pulled everything metal along with it. But with so many curious students milling around, it was hard to tell which one (if any) caused all the destruction.

Zoe was by his side in a flash. "Is everyone really okay?" he asked her.

"No major injuries," she confirmed, "But naturally everyone is hysterical. Apparently this all happened very suddenly."

"How odd."

Phil and Alfie joined them. "Whoever did this must think they're in trouble," said the latter, arms crossed.

"I know the feeling," Dan muttered.

They all turned at the roar of engines. Marcus, Joe, and Caspar had finally arrived and dismounted their own motorbikes. The three of them joined their little powwow and took in the predicament for a moment.

"Do we have a lead?" Joe asked.

Before anyone could answer, Marcus was a step ahead as usual. "I'll find one," he said. He closed his eyes and was silent for a few moments, and when he opened them he pointed. "There. All the metal things are pointing in the same direction, and there we'll find our mutant. In the loading area."

"He's probably freaking out," Caspar commented as they jogged in the general direction that Marcus pointed them.

"She," the telepath corrected.

"Nice," Zoe commented quietly.

The 'loading area' Marcus mentioned was an alley just wide enough for a truck, where the university got deliveries. The pavement was dirty and stained with oil, yet there was still a girl sitting against the far wall. She had her knees up to her chest and her head pressed down onto them. Her shoulders shook; she was crying. Around her, random metal objects slowly skittered across the ground towards her, trapped in her magnetic pull. Marcus looked pained, so Dan took the first few steps towards her.

She noticed. Her head darted up.

"Hey–"

And she wasn't happy about it. "Don't!" she shouted and held her hand up. The movement sent a rogue trash bin lid sailing through the air towards Dan. He didn't even have time to prepare, but luckily it never had time to hit him. Joe stood to his left, the lid in his hands. Dan clapped his shoulder in thanks.

The girl's teary eyes were wide with surprise. "I'm s-sorry," she said just above a whisper, "I didn't mean to."

Dan knew what she meant. "It's okay, nothing's going to happen to you. Just… don't move, okay?"

She nodded mutely and carefully wrapped her arm back around her knees.

Dan approached her again. "We're here to help. My name is Dan, I'm from the MGGB."

"I know who you are," she said and gulped, "Does this mean I'm one of you?"

Phil was right behind him. "Seems like you are," he said in the gentle way only he was capable of.

Dan smiled at her. "We really need you to come with us." He crouched before her, and she looked a bit less miserable now. "We can teach you to control this. And if we can't do that, we can find a way to prevent this from happening again."

"What's your name?" Phil asked her.

She wiped at her eyes. "Niomi," she replied, "What about school?"

Dan waved his hand. "We'll take care of everything. It pays to work with the government sometimes," he assured her.

Niomi cracked a smile and nodded. She adjusted herself just a bit so her knees were no longer up by her chin, preparing to get up. Then, she promptly lost consciousness and fell forward. Everything metal that had been attracted to her was immediately still again. Dan was quick to catch her in his arms. Then he looked back accusingly at Marcus.

"We would have had a repeat if we took her awake," he said defensively.

Joe was staring at him. The trash bin lid was still under his arm. "You didn't know that would work."

"Well, I was hoping it would."

Dan sighed and looked down at the girl he held. He moved her blonde hair from where it stuck to her tear-soaked cheeks. He always felt a bit of a personal connection to the ones who didn't know how to control their abilities. He remembered being in the same position.

Zoe piped up. "We'll get her home in a squad car." And she jogged away to talk to the police again.

With a little difficulty, Dan stood with Niomi bridal style in his arms. Phil chuckled a little behind his hand, and he received a withering look in response.

"Here, noodle arms," Marcus teased, walking over and taking her instead. She was just the right size to lay her head on his shoulder. "I think I'm better built for this."

Dan glared. "I do _not_ have noodle arms. Not anymore. God."

Marcus just grinned at him and headed out of the alleyway. Dan and Phil made to follow.

"Never a dull moment, huh?" said Phil, looking over with a bemused expression. Dan met his eyes and cracked a smile, shaking his head. It really wasn't much of a surprise that he was drenched with water and nearly taken out with a trash bin lid on the same day.


	3. All that bad luck stuff

**_Disclaimer: I do not own the DC characters of Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on._**

* * *

Going to London Heathrow was a production no matter who you were. It was arguably worse when you were a gaggle of superheroes trying to pick up their friends from their eight-hour flight. Thankfully Alfie and Marcus were good security without having to use their abilities; they were simply big guys.

Together they waited by baggage claim for the Trifecta to appear. They each had a sign, like those limo drivers who came to the airport to pick up rich people. They all stood in a line and held them up towards the escalators, where their friends would be descending from their gates. Dan got to hold the one with Grace, Hannah, and Mamrie on it. Phil got Jenna. Others were dispersed among the rest of the group; Zoe, Alfie, Marcus, and Louise also came with them.

"Time?" Phil called out.

"Twelve on the dot!" Zoe chirped in reply.

Zoe was beaming in excitement. "Should be any moment now…"

And then two blonde heads peeked over the top of the escalator and the obnoxiously loud hellos began. Two of the Trifecta leaders, Grace and Hannah, were standing in the front and immediately started to wave with both hands as they descended the escalator. Their companions were very close behind them.

"You are so cute!" Grace said cheerfully as she rushed over and gave Dan a hug. Hannah was in turn swallowed by Phil's huge embrace, and then they switched.

Hannah's head was well below Dan's chin, but she seemed to like it that way, and pressed into his chest as she hugged him. "I missed you," she muttered.

"I missed you too, shorty," Dan replied.

Hannah pulled away and gave him a look, then brightened up again when she spotted Louise. "Happy wedding!"

Then Dan turned and accepted a third hug, and Mamrie Hart squeezed him tightly around the middle. "How are my favorite, uh," she paused, pulled away, and regarded him and Phil, " _death defiers?_ "

The boys chuckled. "Doing good," Dan told her.

Mamrie nodded with a little grin. "Good, I thought you would be. Listen, we have someone with us who you haven't met yet," she said. She turned a bit and beckoned, and that's when Dan noticed there was a girl still standing by the escalator. At Mamrie's wave, she hugged the laptop in her arms a little tighter and walked closer. "Guys, this is our new assistant, Alexis. Alexis, this is Dan and Phil."

"Nice to meet you," Phil said brightly, holding out his hand.

Alexis smiled shyly in return and shook his hand. "Um, yeah, you too." She cleared her throat and looked helplessly between the boy and Mamrie for a moment. "I'm sorry, I told myself I'd be prepared for this, but I'm totally not. I'm a _huge_ fan of the two of you! And, I just, I'm… sorry." She cut herself and turned pink, looking down at her shoes.

Dan and Phil looked at each other with little knowing grins. "Hey, it's still nice to meet you," said the former with a warm smile, "You are much more put together than some other followers we've met on the street. Can't even form full sentences."

"All they can manage is 'hi', 'Hawk and Dove', and incoherent screaming," Phil added.

Dan nodded. "Exactly. So this is just as much of a highlight for us as it is for you."

Although her cheeks were still pink, Alexis looked up and gave them another smile. She seemed to relax a bit, but then from somewhere in the group Hannah called her name. She excused herself and followed the voice. Mamrie was right behind her, but first she added, "Isn't she cute?"

The boys nodded and she skipped away, shouting at one of her teammates for her suitcase off the conveyer belt. Someone who sounded suspiciously like Tyler Oakley answered with something along the lines of 'bitch, get it yourself'.

"Flame Prince and Jack Frost," Jenna appeared in between them suddenly, with hair now brilliantly purple, "Have you gotten taller?"

"Hey!" they drawled and squished her in between them in a hug until she started to protest.

"Alright, alright," she gasped and then cleared her throat, "Which one of you is going to walk me to the car?"

Dan and Phil both offered her an arm at the same time, as they were accustomed to doing so when Jenna asked for escorts. Usually whoever was fast enough got picked, but this was so quick she seemed to have a hard time choosing. Instead, she took both arms and pulled them in close to her.

"Ah, it's good to be back," Jenna sighed with a lazy smile, "Onward, boys."

* * *

The Trifecta members were put up in a hotel not too far from the MGGB Tower, and even though they came for Louise's wedding, they were too close to not take advantage of. They had powers that the MGGB would normally never have access to, so getting them to help teach the recruits in the days leading up to the wedding was too good to pass up.

The first session Dan attended was with the mental talents, who were usually just taught by Marcus, but Tyler decided to join as well. Their powers were very similar, but sometimes Dan didn't understand what the differences were.

"So, guys, this is Tyler," Marcus said, waving his hand towards his smaller companion. There were four members of the mental talent in Tier 3. So far Marcus was the only one to make to Tier 1. "He's telekinetic. Who can tell me the difference between the two of us?"

When no one raised a hand, Marcus sighed. "Come on, guys. The boss is here today." Dan, who was sitting on a chair behind Marcus and Tyler, rolled his eyes.

Tyler raised his hand with a huge grin. Marcus pretended not to notice him until he was literally jumping around in front of his face.

"Yes, Tyler?"

"The difference between a telekinetic and a telepath is that I can _move_ things with my mind, you can't," Tyler stated.

Marcus nodded. "That's unfortunately correct. I can read and manipulate minds while Tyler can manipulate physical objects. His powers are used in a more offensive way than mine."

"Which puts me on a lot of field missions with the Trifecta," the other replied, "While Marcus charged is recon and teaching you youngins." He paused, frowning for a moment. "Is the word 'youngins' derogatory?"

"Are they younger than you?" Dan piped up.

"Yep," Marcus supplied, "Tyler's older than dirt, you know."

Tyler gasped, pressing his palm over his heart as if he were wounded. " _Listen,_ fu–"

"Okay!" Dan interrupted loudly and stood up. "Why don't you start doing your thing, and I'll go check up on some of the others?"

Marcus nodded again in reply and Tyler saluted. "Aye-aye, Captain Hawk," said the latter.

Dan waved and left the room, feeling rather upbeat. He loved his team, naturally, but it was so refreshing to have new people around. Plus, he and Phil didn't get a lot of time to sit in on lessons, so it was kind of fun for them. It was also a relief from the stress of paperwork and press interviews, which they did a lot of in between missions.

Thankfully, Phil caught up with him while he was in the hallway. "Dandandandan!" he chirped, jogging up behind him.

He paused, turning slightly as Phil appeared beside him. "What's up?"

"I was just with Louise and Ingrid in the lab," he explained, "The twins had a pretty interesting dream. Like, the exact same one on the same night."

Dan pursed his lips. "Alright, two things. One, Ingrid?"

"Oh, new scientist with the Trifecta. Dr. Ingrid Nilsen, she mostly came to see Louise's research," Phil supplied.

"Thank you. Continue with the twins."

"According to Louise, they saw a dark room full of clocks. Like, giant clocks. Grace was the only one there, and one by one they started to explode. Jack woke up, so they don't remember the rest of the dream," Phil explained, and then grinned again, "Weird, right? I'm going to tell Grace about it in a bit."

The twins, Jack and Finn, were telepathic with only each other and were convinced they had visions of the future. For almost a year Louise has had them hooked up to a machine to record their brain waves, but there doesn't seem to be any differences between them and anyone else with telepathic powers. And although their dreams always sound really cool, they never seem to predict anything that could actually happen.

"Super weird," Dan agreed, "I think Grace and the others are taking care of some interviews today in our office, you can find them up there."

Phil nodded then he looked down at the floor and clasped his hands together. "Well, where are _you_ going?" he wondered.

"I was going to head outside," Dan replied. His gaze lingered on Phil a moment; he knew that face. It meant he wanted to ask something and he felt shy about it. "Do you want to come too?"

He instantly brightened, and in turn, Dan smiled too. "Yes!"

They exchanged a smile, and then together they headed down the stairs out to the practice yard. Sometimes their trainees needed unlimited space to practice, and considering even their largest gyms have walls and a ceiling, they needed an expanse of just grass. It was as large as they could get in the capitol, which was fine considering it was mostly just the expanse of sky that was useful.

At the moment, Evan Edinger was their only member who could fly. Alfie did his best to help him out like the rest of the physical talents, but there was only so much he could do given his skill set. Therefore, having someone like Korey Kuhl around was a blessing, because he could also fly. There was a slight difference though as Korey's powers all had to do with his ability to control air flow.

In short, Korey didn't have wings.

When and Dan and Phil wandered into the grass, Evan was already in the air. The boys still found him endlessly fascinating. Alfie wouldn't let them ask any questions until he was completely settled into his new rank (Evan had, of course, been let into Tier 3 after his very successful demonstration). They each stood on the either side of Alfie to watch.

"Morning," he greeted without looking away from what was happening in the air.

Dan and Phil were also already focused on it. "Hey," they said in unison.

"This might be the coolest thing I've ever seen," added Alfie, "Just watch."

They did. Evan was hovering in the air with the help of his evenly beating wings, and Korey was on the ground. He was saying something to Evan, but the spectators were a bit too far away to hear what it was. Evan nodded and then dropped a bit in altitude, closer to the ground. Then, Korey took a huge breath in, and when he blew it out again it materialized into a gust of wind. The wind caught in Evan's wings and sent him soaring up into the air at frightening speeds, which made Dan's heart rate spike in worry, but then he could see Evan's face again. He looked immeasurably happy.

Dan smiled as he watched him. He knew what that pure elation felt like. He's been able to freely use his powers for years now, but Evan was new. Dan imagined he'd never been able to just go outside and just _fly_ before. Now he was free to do that. It was a feeling that really couldn't be compared to anything, but could be described as being one's true self for the first time.

"We don't _have_ to work today, do we?" Phil murmured, suddenly standing beside Dan again.

"No, we don't have to," Dan agreed, another smile moving onto his face. They could afford to take pseudo-days off. If something came up, they'd be there. But for now, they could watch the Tier 3's learn how to love life again.

* * *

Dan woke up that morning by being unceremoniously dumped on the floor.

"Phil!" he grumbled, rubbing his arm where it connected with the hardwood. Phil was on his stomach on the bed, looking very proud of successfully forcing Dan awake. "What."

He placed his chin in his hand. "Not my fault you sleep like a freaking rock," he defended, "And, it's wedding day! We have to go pick up our tuxes and stuff."

Dan groaned and turned onto his back, throwing his arms over his face. "We have to do that today, huh?" he said.

"Yep! Ceremony's at three and Louise wants to get mimosas beforehand."

"Give me five… ten minutes."

Phil hopped up and breezed out of the room. "I'm showering first!"

He was already out of the room so he didn't hear Dan sigh heavily and mutter, "You bitch."

When he finally heard the shower turn on, Dan found the energy to get up off the floor. Their apartment was small and sparse, considering they both spent most of their time at the tower. Even so, having a place to get mail and slack off in private was nice. They couldn't do, well, _everything_ in the MGGB Tower.

Dan flipped on the coffee maker and leaned over the fishbowl on the breakfast bar. A little blue fish swam about in clear water; Phil must have recently cleaned it. Dan was surprised every day the little thing lived. The two of them didn't spend a lot of time at home, yet the fish was still around despite sometimes being forgotten about.

"Just as determined as we are, huh?" Dan muttered at the bowl. The fish changed its course, and he took that as an answer in the affirmative. "This is why we can't have a dog."

When the coffee was ready, Dan sat on the breakfast bar and waited for Phil to come out of the shower. He thought he would have more urgency and excitement when Louise's big day finally came, but this felt like just any other morning. Maybe he wasn't feeling any different due to the fact that he hadn't completely woken up yet. However, he knew Phil was feeling it, because he walked in the most brightly colored jumper Dan's ever seen.

"Oh my god," said the brunette, lowering his mug from his mouth.

Phil blinked. "What?"

"This is why we need therapy," Dan said, gesturing to his top, "We're too different. _Look_ at that!"

"I like it!"

"Don't make me say it again."

Phil just smiled at him. Dan hopped off the counter and downed the rest of his coffee, then placed the mug in the sink. "I'm going to shower, then –" He stopped, because Phil had grabbed his arm. Dan stood there confused for a moment before Phil pulled him in and pressed a long kiss to his mouth. Of course, Dan didn't fight it.

"Hurry back," Phil muttered once they split.

Dan nodded and rounded the corner, but then came back and gave his partner a withering look. "You were disguising your want to not be late in something cute, weren't you?" he accused.

Phil just winked. Dan rolled his eyes and left the room for good. He was toweling off his hair after getting out of the shower when he noticed something strange. A splotch of red, like a rash, colored his ribcage starting beneath his left arm. He dropped the towel and raised it over his head to try and get a good look. He touched the reddened skin, and it felt normal. It wasn't raised or irritated like a rash would be. It was just… there.

"Hey, Phil?" Dan stuck his head out the door. "Come here a sec."

Dan wrapped his towel around his waist and Phil slipped in. "Yeah?"

"Look at this." The brunette raised his arm again to show Phil the red splotch. He leaned over to study it, chewing his bottom lip.

"Yikes. Does it itch?"

Dan shook his head. "No. I didn't even notice until I saw my reflection," he replied.

Phil straightened, screwed his mouth up in thought, and then shrugged. "Well, in that case I wouldn't worry about it. You could have just rubbed too hard drying off," he said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks, what are boyfriends for other than looking at strange body happenings?" Dan said with a teasing grin.

Phil snorted and kissed Dan's shoulder. "Get dressed, we _need_ to go," he said and left the room again. He didn't catch another one of Dan's eye rolls.

The boys met Louise for mimosas at a little restaurant by the wedding venue, where Zoe and Dr. Nilsen, Ingrid, also joined them. Ingrid was rather new to the Trifecta, where she was basically their Louise. The two of them had spent a lot of time together while the Americans were visiting, and while Ingrid wasn't a mutant like Louise was, she was still brilliant. It was easy to tell that they had a lot in common, inside and out of the lab.

After that it was mostly a whirlwind. They picked up their tuxes and dolled up for the wedding, and joined Louise in the bridal room, as she got ready. Phil was ultimately useless, but Dan had theater experience. It was a "small" (complete with nearly one hundred guests) wedding, so Zoe was doing hair and makeup. Dan helped with the makeup part.

"So, this ceremony should only last about fifteen minutes, because I know it's the most boring part," Louise said as Dan sat on the vanity trying to draw on eyeliner, "It'll take at most forty-five seconds for Zoe to walk me down the aisle–"

"Zoe's walking you?" Dan interrupted.

"Yes. And you're lucky your mouth smells like orange juice, jerk," she said. Dan pressed his lips together. He was rather close to her face.

He looked up and met Phil's gaze across the room. He mouthed 'family?' behind Louise's back. Dan shrugged and then gestured at Phil with his chin, telling him to ask her about it.

"Louise," he piped up, "Don't you have family to walk you down the aisle? Not that Zoe is a bad choice…"

She shrugged. "I did. I haven't talked to them in years, since before I was recruited by MI5. They always thought I was strange anyway." She swallowed, but her expression didn't fall. Dan looked up at Zoe, who was frowning sadly. Now that they had it so good, their team as a whole sometimes forgot where they came from. "It'll be a great day anyway. Right?" Louise continued.

"Of course, chummy," Zoe said brightly, smiling once more and hugging Louise around the shoulders. Dan leaned back and looked on, satisfied with how well Louise's eyes turned out.

Someone knocked on the door, and Phil was the one who rose to answer it. He didn't open it completely, but said very loudly, "Hi, Matt!"

Louise gasped. "He shouldn't be here!"

"Louise says you shouldn't be here," Phil supplied out the door. Dan chuckled. He was sure Matt could hear Louise through the door.

"Oh please," came Matt's voice in reply, " She doesn't believe in all that bad luck stuff."

"Of course I don't, but I still want him to be surprised at the altar," Louise retorted and touched her hair in the mirror while Zoe looked on happily.

Phil once again updated Matt, just in case. "She wants you to be surprised. She really looks… incredible."

Dan grinned and looked over at Louise, whose cheeks had gone pink. Matt said something else, but the others didn't catch it as it was too soft, but Phil got it. Once the door was closed again, he shared.

"Matt said he knows you'll look amazing," he said with his own smile, "And that he loves you very much."

Louise looked down at her lap, trying to hide her ever-blushing cheeks and very excited smile. She was usually their clear-headed professional, but today she was a bride. And she deserved all the happiness in the world.

Matt Holmes was a brain surgeon, which made it perfect and a bit ironic for him to be marrying a super genius. Louise met him at a summit she attended in Scotland about two and half years ago, right when the MGGB was first starting to find its rhythm. He of course knew who she was, and their initial meetings were strictly professional. To the happiness of both parties involved, these professional meetings morphed into dates, and the rest is history. Louise introduced him to her friends, and he was a nice guy and he really loved Louise. That was enough for them, particularly for Dan.

Dan and Phil sat in the front row at the ceremony. It was just as Louise wanted it, short and sweet. The press was not allowed in like publicists everywhere implored was a good idea. Zoe walked her down the aisle while already crying, and they both looked amazing. Alfie, also in the front, took at least twenty photos. It was really something, Dan thought, watching one of his closest friends in the world get married. At one point he even reached up to wipe his eyes.

Phil grasped his other hand suddenly. Dan looked over and gave him a smile in return. Phil just smiled back, and they looked at each other for a few moments and then back at the ceremony. They kept holding hands.

As soon as "you may kiss the bride" was uttered, the whole room burst into applause. Everyone got to their feet to cheer and clap as the newly weds walked down the aisle to get ready for the reception, and the rest of the guests followed behind. Dan and Phil walked together, hand in hand, and were quickly joined by the others.

"What a beautiful wedding!" Hannah Hart gushed, wiping a pretend tear from her cheek.

"Did you cry?" Phil asked, "Dan cried."

"I did not!"

Mamrie's head appeared between the boys'. Well, more like between their shoulders. "It's okay, you don't need to pretend to hold onto your sanity, particularly because this reception is going to be _hoppin'._ "

"Open bar, yeah?" Hannah asked hopefully.

"Yeah!" Zoe piped up, who walked behind the group with Alfie.

Grace, Hannah, and Mamrie all did a little fist–pump _'yes'._

"You three are ridiculous," Dan commented, shaking his head.

"I'm offended, Daniel," Mamrie retorted while she stuck out her bottom lip in a defiant pout.

Hannah snorted. "Don't hate us 'cause you ain't us," she added and high –fived Grace.

The reception hall was beautifully decorated in blush pink and gold. Dan, Phil, Zoe, Alfie, and Marcus were all seated at one table. Zoe was obsessed with the centerpiece, where the flowers were so effervescent Dan was sure they were somehow enchanted. He wouldn't have been surprised if someone at this wedding had the ability to do that. It was all very, very perfect. There wasn't a negative emotion in the room.

* * *

The music was so loud that the bass caused ripples in Dan's glass of water. He held it firmly in place with his right hand, while his left tapped the heavy drumbeat on his knee. His glass was sweating; it was hot in the room, from all the people and their dancing. Not that he minded much. Dan welcomed the heat, but still his suit jacket was tossed over the back of his chair, and his tie hung loosely around his unbuttoned collar.

When he looked up from his glass of water, Zoe had appeared, her boyfriend in tow. Her forehead was shiny with sweat, even in her short dress. "What a party, huh?" she asked with a bright smile, "The music is great."

"You'd think we were at a rave instead of a wedding!" Alfie agreed, also sweating from keeping up with Zoe's love of dancing.

"Honestly, I didn't expect this much of Louise when I met her," Mamrie Hart added from across the table, "But damn if I'm not psyched about it."

Zoe laughed. "Matt's really loosened her up a bit," she said.

Dan raised his glass of water. "The brain surgeon from paradise," he teased.

Just then, Hannah and Phil returned from the bar. They each had a round of shots. "Just in time!" Hannah noted, nodding to Dan's water glass. She promptly took it and replaced it with a shot.

"This better not be tequila," Grace said with a grimace as she took her own glass.

"It is," Phil supplied chirpily, taking his seat beside Dan.

Grace continued to frown, and Mamrie clapped her on the shoulder. "It'll put hair on your chest," she told her.

Everyone laughed and Hannah raised her shot glass. "To hair on our chests!"

"To Louise and Matt," Zoe corrected through her giggles.

Everyone toasted to Louise and her new husband and downed their shots. It did _not_ taste good, but when in Rome, Dan supposed. There were only so many weddings a person went to in their lifetime. Might as well help celebrate by getting respectfully drunk. Zoe and Alfie disappeared back into the throng of people dancing, which was unsurprising. Dan was glad they were having fun.

Then _Single Ladies_ came on and Hannah jumped to her feet. She tugged on Grace's arm. "Come on, we have to dance, it's _Beyoncé!_ " the former cried, "Plus, we're both single ladies."

Grace groaned in complaint, but rose from her chair anyway. "Hang on," she said. She grabbed another shot glass and tossed it back like it was water. "Wait, I also have to see our secretary real fast-"

"She was already here, I talked to her, now stop making excuses!" Mamrie interjected, who was back to drinking her cocktail.

Dan frowned, giving Mamrie a questioning look. "Your secretary is here?"

"I thought you were on vacation," Phil agreed.

Mamrie shrugged. "We're supposed to be, but it's hard for us to stop working, you know?" she said and took a long gulp of her drink.

The boys exchanged a look. This was about their only day off, ever, and even now there were still people back at the base taking care of things. Dan and Phil were only a call away, but it had to be an absolute emergency. The Trifecta members had come all the way from America, after all, they must have a lot to take care of.

"Let's not think about work," Dan said, grabbing two shot glasses and handing one to Mamrie, "At least for right now. We have a wedding to enjoy."

Phil grabbed one for himself. "I think the world will make it through one day without us," he said.

"Hear hear!" Mamrie chirped, raising her glass. They all clinked together and downed them at the same time. Mamrie came up coughing, and snatched up her napkin to muffle it.

Phil leaned in close to Dan. "Shall we go dance too?" he whispered.

"You really want to subject yourself to that?" Dan teased in reply, quirking a brow.

"Very funny," he said, rolling his eyes, "You said we should enjoy it though, right? Louise would never forgive us if we sat around for the entire reception– are you okay?"

Mamrie was still coughing. Dan gave her a worried look, but she just waved her hand at Phil's question. "I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, dropping her napkin on the table and standing up, "Come on, slow-pokes, you're dancing with me!"

Phil turned to Dan and pecked him quickly on the mouth. "Now we have no choice," he said and darted from his seat to catch up with Mamrie.

Dan deposited his tie on the chair and was right behind them, when he spotted something on the table that gave him pause. Mamrie's napkin was sitting on the table beside her almost empty glass but that wasn't what caught his attention. Black spots discolored the white fabric, as if a fountain pen had dripped ink onto it. Dan curiously picked it up and looked closer. None of the other napkins were like this… why would this one be stained, with black of all things?

"Daniel!" Mamrie called over the music.

Dan looked up, his attention drawn back to the wedding and the dancing. He dropped the napkin and decided that it was just a fluke; someone messed up and got something on it.

As he approached the dance floor, Phil's eyes were already on him. His smile was nearly disarming as he held his hands out for Dan, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. Dan's own smile mirrored his, when they were finally close enough they joined hands and instinctively pulled each other close. Phil was not known to have the best rhythm or the greatest dance moves in the world, but Dan found that endearing and had no problem trying to get his partner to move to the beat.

"This is not going as well as I planned," Phil said in Dan's ear, leaning in close.

Dan shrugged. "Didn't I tell you so?" he replied teasingly.

Phil pulled his head away and shook it slowly, in a small, exasperated manner. Dan laughed softly and put his hands on Phil's hips to pull him close but also in an attempt to get him to move to the beat of the song. Phil's cheeks colored, and for a moment they hovered close together, but then he stepped away again.

"I'm going to go take off my jacket," he told Dan, already plucking at his collar.

Dan nodded instead of trying to figure out a way to be heard despite the music. He was glad he already knew to get rid of his own. Phil leaned forward and pecked Dan's lips before walking back towards their table to deposit his suit jacket. Hardly even a second later, someone smacked into Dan's back and sent him stumbling forward. Thankfully it was Hannah who caught him and just laughed as she kept him from falling.

Upon turning, he discovered it had been the Trifecta's secretary, Alexis, who nearly knocked him forward. She looked alarmed, and she was holding her tablet and stylus pen very close to her chest. "I'm sorry!" she said hurriedly.

"Don't worry," Dan managed to say over the music, "That's what I get for being on the edge of the crowd!"

Alexis smiled at him nervously, and then moved in closer so they could hear each other properly. "Have you seen Grace? I, um, really need to find her there's been an emergency –"

And then just as suddenly as Alexis appearing, so did Grace. Dan watched, as she suddenly grabbed Hannah and Mamrie by their arms, even though he never noticed her leave the crowd. Grace had her phone pressed to her ear as she dragged her two teammates away, and Alexis was quick to scurry after them. That's when Phil came back.

"What's going on?" he asked Dan, watching the girls leave the reception hall to go outside, presumably to hear the phone better.

Dan shook his head, because he didn't know, and it all happened very fast. Phil inclined his head towards the door the girls had left out of, and then they both followed them. They tried to look less hurried as to not worry everyone else enjoying the reception. Dan really, really hoped that whoever was on the other end of that phone wasn't going to ruin Louise's big day.

Dan and Phil reached the door and cautiously peeked out onto the veranda. Grace no longer had the phone on her ear, instead it was held out in front of her as she talked to someone on it.

"–any idea where it came from?" she was saying.

The boys couldn't hear the reply, but whatever it was didn't seem to appease the Trifecta. Phil cleared his throat, and the others each jumped and turned at the noise.

"Are we interrupting?" Dan asked cautiously.

Grace shook her head. "Come here, guys, I think you guys should see this too," she said quickly.

The boys crowded over and looked over shoulders to see Grace's phone screen. The person on the other end was Connor Franta, a prominent member of the Trifecta. He seemed to be in the control room, as he was surrounded by circuit boards.

They were smoking gently. Dan leaned in closer.

"We're trying everything we can to locate the origin, but nothing is working," he said, gesturing behind him, "The entire place is down, things are short-circuiting –" He was interrupted by something blowing in a crunch of metal and plastic behind him, and he cringed and stared behind him. "We don't know what to do! It won't stop!" he cried to the camera.

"So the base is exploding?" Hannah asked with urgency in her voice.

Connor nodded. "The virus is spreading to everything computer automated in the building. Security went down first, then our communications, and now no one can control anything. It's like someone has hacked our entire system," he continued.

"And there's no one there?" Mamrie asked.

"No, ma'am."

The girls looked at each other, and then at the boys. They all shared equally clueless looks. Then, Connor spoke up again.

"Oh, this monitor is coming up," he said, and turned the camera towards a computer screen near him. It was colored a light blue, and white letters were appearing as if someone was typing them in.

K. 1.

There was silence from everyone for several moments. Hannah piped up, "What does that mean?"

"I don't know," Connor replied softly, confused, and then all the lights at the American base went out. "Everything is off."

"I can't believe this, who in the world could shut down our entire operation?" Hannah said, her question directed generally.

Dan tugged Phil's sleeve. "We should call the tower," he murmured. What if the same thing was happening with their base and they had no idea?

"On it," he said distractedly and turned away, already reaching into his pocket.

Grace turned and met Dan's eyes. "We need to go home ASAP, I don't think this is a prank," she said.

"And what about that computer screen?" Mamrie interjected, her arms crossed, "Clockwork, strike one? Is that a code word, a person? It's so out of the blue."

"I'll ask Ingrid what she thinks," Hannah said.

Dan nodded and swallowed, hard. This was a little frightening. He's been used to his own operation being impenetrable, even to the United Kingdom government. Now it made him feel vulnerable. "Know that you have us at your disposal," he told them.

The three girls once again exchanged a look. "Maybe we could use some of your talents," Hannah decided, "How would you finally like to see LA?"

* * *

 **AN: Oh hey. Welcome back. Sorry about this, I've gotten a lot of messages about continuing this. Please have faith that I will always finish this, no matter how long I take between chapters. My life is just hectic and I can't have a regular posting schedule. :(**


	4. Sleeping is SO inconvenient

**Disclaimer: I do not own the DC characters of Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on.**

* * *

The boys had a lot to do in a rather small stretch of time. Hours after Louise's wedding the Trifecta boarded a plane for home, after everyone was informed of the events from the call with Connor Franta. It chilled the whole team; the Trifecta had never had such a blatant threat to their security and power before, and they were older as a whole than the MGGB. They arranged travel details with Dan and Phil, with a few days grace period, so they could get things in order at home before they left.

First of all, Louise was still going to go on her honeymoon. She argued with the boys on her wedding day for her to go with them, but it was futile. Sure this was her job, but Hawk and Dove weren't about to take her away from her new husband, no matter how good her argument was. It was compromised that she would go on the honeymoon and then join them in California as soon as it was over. Matt looked thrilled that he got to extend his time Louise, but Dan hoped he wasn't lying when he said he understood that Louise had to go. She had an obligation just like he did to his hospital and his patients.

Secondly, PJ and Chris were going to be in charge of the base while they were gone. They had a lot of things to oversee with so many Tier Ones leaving, but they insisted they could handle it as long as they could contact their teammates whenever they needed to. It was easy for PJ and Louise's lab techs to override the country-to-country restrictions on their mobile phones, so that was not going to be an issue.

Dodie and Evan, a new duo in the MGGB, volunteered to take care of Phil's fish.

The first deviation from the original plan came from Marcus Butler. He insisted that Niomi wasn't ready to be without them, but could definitely handle being in an airplane for nearly twelve hours. Marcus and Alfie had been the ones spending all their time with her, so Dan and Phil decided that she could join them as both her teachers were also leaving. Even Zoe was growing attached to her.

Troye Sivan was added to the roster, to round up their power threshold a bit. The scene in California wasn't an outright physical attack, but there was enough there to warrant that there was a person behind it, and they needed to be ready to fight anyway. Zoe and Marcus didn't often go on missions with intense combat, and no matter how receptive to training she was Niomi was definitely not ready, so they needed someone fighting ready just in case. Plus, several members of the Trifecta had asked about Troye, so he was a favorite among them anyway.

With the logistics of the trip either squared away or in the works, there were only two more things Hawk and Dove had to do. Firstly, they had to pack. They were both horrific procrastinators, so that would most likely get done the day their flight left. It wasn't a huge issue to be concerned with.

However, they also had to convince their therapist that they would be fine without an appointment for an indeterminate amount of time.

"We've gotten so much better," said Phil in what would turn out to be their last appointment, "We don't really fight anymore… at least not about things that hurt us."

"The separation thing has helped," Dan added.

"We even go home more often," the other continued. Home meaning their apartment, the place where they actually lived away from the MGGB Tower. And it was true, they had been acting more like a couple now, instead of Hawk and Dove sleeping in their office.

Dr. Rogers regarded them with the sort of calm expression that threatened to tear their coping mechanisms apart. But she clicked her pen, which Dan had come to learn meant that she wasn't writing anymore notes. "Your improvements have been spectacular, boys, really," she told them, "but I really have to advise against this trip because I'm a _relationship_ counselor. I truly believe you'll be better off as a couple if you spend some time just being a couple. While I'm sure you will have a great time in California, it is for work, right?"

Dan and Phil looked at each other, and then both nodded at her. They had tried to explain their situation to her the best that they could without revealing any potentially secret information. They weren't sure how much the Trifecta wanted to share with the general public.

"I understand the two of you have a very unique job, so I'm not going to tell you not to go at all. Not that I could stop you," continued Dr. Rogers, "But I will say this. Be aware of each other while you work. Don't let it get to you. And… Try to stay positive. I hope to see how things are when you get back."

* * *

The night before their flight to LAX, Dan tossed clothes into his suitcase back at the apartment. His phone sat on top of the nightstand, his brother's voice on speaker.

"Are you sure you can't take me with you?" Adrian said, still sounding disappointed.

"I'm not going on vacation," Dan said as he picked up a t-shirt from the floor and sniffed it. He grimaced and tossed it in the hamper. "This is for work. It could be dangerous."

Adrian scoffed. "Phil would agree to take me."

"Well, Phil's not here, so you're shit out of luck."

"What?!" the younger one cried and Dan rolled his eyes. "You're not attached at the hip? Who knew. Not me."

Tossing a few more articles of clothing haphazardly into the suitcase, Dan said, "Shouldn't you be doing homework?"

"Hey, _you_ called _me_."

"Yeah, yeah." He ended up having to sit on the top of the bag to get it to close. After the fact he realized he probably could have just folded things better, but it was too late for that. The Howell brothers continued their conversation and near the end the door opened and shit.

"Honey, I'm home!" Phil called, a little too loudly. Dan figured he must have earbuds in.

He peeked around a corner, and he was right. He waited until Phil had removed them. "Honey?"

Phil shrugged. "Do you hate it?"

Dan lifted a shoulder and went back to his room. "I'm gonna let you go now, Adrian. Tell mum and dad I said hi," he said. His brother started to protest so he could ask Phil if he could come to California, but Dan wasn't having it. "Bye Adrian!" he shouted and pressed the red button.

Phil leaned in the doorway. "Was he saying my name?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, he's convinced you'd give in and we'd bring him with us," Dan replied.

His partner snorted. "We're not going on vacation–"

"–that's what I said!"

"–but I bet he would still have fun."

Dan shook his head. "You're a pushover. This is why they gave _me_ the bird of prey."

Phil gasped dramatically, but thankfully still grinned. They had had an argument over this before; Phil had been frustrated one day that he wouldn't garner as much respect as Dan did because his name was Dove and actual doves were little white birds of peace. Dan had thought it was ridiculous to think that and of course that was the wrong thing to say. That argument had been a learning experience. Phil had smashed a glass of water for the first time just by making it too cold too fast.

"My shirts are nicer though," Phil said, pulling up the hem of his hoodie to show Dan his t-shirt.

It did say _Dove_ on it, in a pretty cursive script. A small drawing of the namesake bird sat in the open curl of the D. "Did you buy your own merch?" Dan said, raising a brow.

"It's fan-made."

Scoffing, Dan shook his head. "Start packing, our flight leaves in the morning."

Phil just pouted. "You didn't pack for me?" he said.

"I'm your boyfriend, not your maid," Dan replied and a smile curved Phil's mouth, "I'm going to make dinner."

Dan made pasta while Phil packed. There were a couple complaints from both of them, but in the end, both tasks were mastered. However, it was rather late before either of them could find it within themselves to settle down to sleep. Dan had just folded his arms under his head when Phil looked back over at him.

"Hey, how's that thing?"

Dan furrowed his eyebrows. "What thing?"

"Remember that rash-looking-thing you had? Have you checked on it?" Phil continued.

He shook his head. Honestly, they had brushed it off and Dan had stopped worrying about it, especially because it hadn't been painful. He pushed the duvet down to his hips to expose his side and shifted slightly so he was in the light.

"Is it gone?"

Phil ran his fingers down Dan's side and he shivered at the light touch. Phil looked up with a little smirk and then removed his hand. "I don't see or feel anything. I think you're fine," he said.

"That's a plus," Dan replied. He pursed his lips. "Have you thought much about what's going on with the Trifecta?"

Phil frowned and shook his head. He had been at the Tower this evening before he walked in on the phone call with Adrian, working with a couple other team members to see if they could find anything. "We did everything we could think of. There's no trace anywhere for someone, or anything, called Clockwork that would be relevant to them."

"That's so weird."

"Super weird," he added, "Jim and Louise agree that to be able to shut down all the electronics in the base it would have had to be a very good hacker or a virus. So we think there's a person behind it."

"Well, I didn't think it was a fluke," said Dan.

"Better to have evidence," said Phil, shrugging the shoulder he wasn't lying on, "I also doubt it was a coincidence that leaders of the team were away from home."

"Oh, it can't be. And the 'strike one' crap? A person obviously wanted to draw attention to themselves," Dan agreed.

Phil nodded. "And it also implies that there will be more strikes."

"Hopefully the girls will know more once we get there. So we can prevent more attacks, at the very least, if we can't track the culprit."

Grumbling, Phil dug his face into his pillow. Dan looked on, amused, until he spoke again. "This is so stressful."

"This is what we signed up for," said the brunette and then leaned over to kiss Phil's temple, "Saving people's asses for a living."

Phil laughed a little and reached above Dan's head to grab one of his hands. "I thought I was just signing up for you," he said.

Dan's cheeks went pink. Man, not fighting sure was great. "Look how much you got. Plus me."

"I'm glad we decided on seeing a therapist," Phil muttered and pressed a kiss to Dan's knuckles, "I could live without my job. You I'd like to keep no matter what."

Dan smiled at him, his stomach alight with butterflies. Like their relationship was still new. "You must be exhausted. You're getting all mushy," he teased in response.

Blue eyes rolling, the other released Dan's hand. "Leave it to you to kill the moment."

"Shut up!" Dan said indignantly. Just to prove his point, he reached over with both hands to grab Phil's face and pull him in. With their lips locked and chests bare, the butterflies in Dan's stomach exploded in tiny little flames. That always happened. Dan would warm up from the inside out, and presumably Phil's body would do the same, and by the time they were done (no matter how long it went on for) the air was full of moisture from the temperature changes. They had yet to get the windows to fog, though.

"You're right," Phil added when they detached. Dan's eyes fluttered open. Phil started to move away and instinctively he tightened the grip he had in the black hair. "I'm tired. We have a long day tomorrow."

Dan groaned and looked over at the nightstand with the alarm clock atop it. "We _do_ have to be in California in less than twelve hours."

Phil nodded, shifted away slightly, and pulled the covers up to his chin. "We should probably go to sleep then, huh?" he mumbled.

Dan closed his eyes. "Sleeping is so inconvenient."

Phil simply tucked himself into Dan's side and told him to shush. He settled in as well, breathing in the sweet smell of Phil's hair while he drifted off.

* * *

The team traveling to California the next day met at the ungodly hour of 5 AM at the airport. Both boys wore sweatpants, Phil wore his glasses, and Dan looked absolutely disheveled. To be fair, none of them looked their best to be on a plane for twelve hours, but that was beside the point. They also were not prepared for the airport to be full of people so early in the morning.

They did their best to fit in, but of course it didn't quite work.

An hour and half later they were on the plane, in business class. Better than coach, not as expensive as first class. It was nearly as comfortable as well.

Marcus and Niomi were in the row in front of Dan and Phil. Before take off, Marcus got on his knees and looked over the back of his seat at them. "I know something bad might be happening to the Trifecta, but I'm pretty excited," he told them.

Phil smiled. "We are too. Dan's brother wanted to come."

"You should have brought him, he could have hung out with Niomi," Marcus said to Dan. The latter just showed his palms in an exasperated motion and turned his head towards the window.

"I'll be fine, Marcus," Niomi piped up. The top of her blonde head could just barely be seen, "Maybe I'll actually learn something being there with the Americans."

Dan looked over at Phil, and they exchanged a look. They knew between them that Niomi was still new, and while she was good at not being a human magnet now, it still might be too early to be any sort of offensive. Marcus, of course, was in tune to this thought and just gave a little nod of agreement. She would get better. Hopefully being inside a giant metal plane would help with her restraint.

Marcus rolled his eyes and turned back around to sit properly in his seat.

Dan ended up being asleep for most of the plane ride, which was honestly exactly what he was hoping for. He hadn't really slept enough, in his opinion, the night before he had to get up at a time that was basically in the middle of the night. When he did wake up he couldn't tell what time it was but there were only seven out of twelve hours left to go.

When they landed in LAX, everyone else seemed to know where to go and Dan ended up just following along. They were headed outside for arrivals, and when they walked outside Dan was surprised at warm it was. There wasn't any chill in the air, and hardly any moisture, which was _so_ different than he was used to in London. Also, the underpass was alive with car horns and brakes squealing and the smell of exhaust. That was reminiscent of home but that was about where the similarities ended.

"What now?" Alfie wondered.

"I believe we wait for our ride," Phil replied, "Mamrie told me that they're sending for a van to pick us up."

Troye scoffed. "We met them at the airport and they send someone else to get us? How rude."

Indeed, a big red van did come to pick them up, and it took a very long time for them to get there. Cars behind it were already honking before they had all squished in. Dan ended up squished in the middle between Phil and Zoe, which meant he had to lean quite dramatically to see the scenery out the window. Zoe was practically pressed to the glass.

"So, where is the Trifecta base?" Dan asked as they drove on what the Californians call the freeway.

"Downtown LA," said Zoe as she snapped photos through the window, "It's a pretty building, near town hall. I think we're staying at a hotel near there as well."

According to their driver, it took a record amount of time to pull up in front of the headquarters of the American Trifecta. The building was impressive; it had Greek columns. It also had a fence and a intercom, and it looked like the guard also standing in the front was a new addition. When the MGGB climbed out, however, they could see several of their friends rushing the gate.

Grace punched in a number and the gate slid open.

"Welcome to America!" Hannah shouted as they approached.

Hannah, Grace, Tyler, and Connor had all run out to welcome them. Alfie and Marcus were already going around to pull their luggage out. "Hey, don't worry, we have that covered," Grace told them.

"They're going right to your hotel," Connor added with a nod. He looked between Dan and Phil and he smiled at them. "I don't think we've ever met in purpose. Hawk and Dove, it's a pleasure."

Dan shook his hand first. "Dan, please," he said with a smile.

Troye nearly fell out of the van and then promptly hopped over. "I'm Troye. I've never been here before either," he said.

The blonde smiled. "I'm Connor Franta."

Hannah cleared her throat. "So, I know you just got here, but it's tour time!" she said, "And some updates."

Grace gestured grandly to the front of the HQ. "Welcome to our abode!"

So the MGGB followed. The foyer of the building looked like the lobby of an office building, complete with a secretary and several suited people going back and forth between the hallways on either side. "Those are CIA agents," Tyler explained to them, "We have a team of them there. They're our only wire to government regulated shit."

"Don't you run independently?" Niomi asked.

"Yep," he said with a nod, "But, some things get passed to us when they need some specialties."

Dan thought that didn't sound so bad, but the MGGB was completely government regulated. Dan and Phil had run of the place, but technically they did answer to the head of MI5.

Grace and Hannah led them all through the biggest door of the lobby and into a white hallway. "Most of these are offices, including for Grace, Mamrie, and I. Some of the others share one, and the very last door is the staircase to the labs. That's where it all went down," Grace explained, pointing.

"Where is Mamrie?" Zoe wondered.

"She didn't come in today," said Hannah with a frown, "She said she wasn't feeling well. Which is super weird, honestly, she never misses work. But we didn't question her."

They all went down the stairs to the basement floor, which was completely open like their own back home. The circuit boards that had been short-circuiting in the initial call with Connor went on for an entire expanse of wall. He pointed them towards the offending Clockwork monitor. It was unplugged.

"We didn't take any chances," he said softly.

Dan nodded and looked to Grace and Hannah. "Have you found anything else?" he asked.

The former shook her head. "We've had a bunch of our team _and_ CIA agents look into it. But there hasn't been any more information, and no other signs of this Clockwork," she replied.

"You couldn't even track the signal?" Zoe asked.

Hannah shook her head. "It didn't have a signal, it was a virus."

"I asked our resources to do everything they can to find the source," Connor said, "But nothing's come back yet. I'm not sure they're doing anything." The girls rolled their eyes. "We're not particularly high on their priorities list at this point," he continued.

"How?" said Marcus, looking confused, "This is a secure facility and no one thinks that it being shut down with one virus isn't a priority?"

Hannah shrugged. "Not much we can do there. That's why we brought in you guys, so we have some help if something else happens, and to help with our regular missions while we try to sort this out."

Phil nodded. "We are open to doing whatever you need us to," he told them.

"Tomorrow when Mamrie's better we'll get you a couple mission reports to go over," Tyler added with a nod.

Connor went over to the door. "Zoe and Marcus, I can show you up to mission control," he said. The two mentioned exchanged a grin and followed him. Niomi lingered, looking a little nervous without Marcus. A cup of paperclips suddenly tipped over on a nearby desk.

"Feel free to go with them," said Tyler, waving his hands. She gave him a grateful smile and hurried out of the room. Tyler looked around at them. "I may not read minds, but I have a great intuition."

Hannah rolled her eyes with a good-natured smile and looked around at the rest of them. "Come on, we'll show you the rest of it. Before Ingrid gets back and kicks us out of her lab," she said. The boys followed, Troye sidled up next to Connor, and Dan got see how nice it was to have a real office building instead of a square highrise.

* * *

 **AN: I guess I'm not dead?**


	5. Ten Minutes

Dan swiped at Hannah's face, but she ducked and aimed an elbow into his ribcage. He took the blow only so he could use her arm for leverage. "You seem a little distracted," he commented.

She twisted, but Dan's grip was too strong and her back ended up pressed to his chest. "Yeah, it's Mamrie. She's been out sick for almost four days."

"Has anyone checked up on her?" he asked as Hannah as she nearly took out a leg and knocked him to the floor, "Maybe bring her some flu meds."

She shrugged quickly and succeeded in taking out Dan's leg, which had him on one knee. She twisted his wrist and he was forced to let her go. "Grace or I have called her every night, she says she's fine. 'Just a cough'. But she won't come in."

"And this is unusual," he added, ducking under an attempted knee to the nose and jumping back up to his feet.

Hannah put her fists back up. "Totally. The three of us are workaholics," she replied.

She feigned a punch to his gut and then nailed him in the chin when his attention was down. She attempted to kick him in the shoulder to knock him over squarely, but he leaned back and caught her ankle before it made contact. Her sneaker hovered near his ear. He smirked at her.

"Don't you dare," Hannah muttered.

Dan gently pushed on that ankle, and let go at the perfect time so she lost her balance and ended up on her butt on the mat. She pouted at him.

He leaned over and offered her a hand. "Maybe you should just go to Mamrie's apartment. Make sure everything is okay," he said.

She grabbed it and hauled herself back to her feet. "That's a good idea. Bring her some soup, that usually makes people feel good."

Dan nodded. "I hear it's good for the soul," he added playfully.

"Daniel," said Hannah, putting her hand on his shoulder. Dan lifted his brows. "Your stupid jokes never cease to amaze me. How much would it take to get you live here?"

"You can't afford me."

"Worth a shot."

Hannah tossed him his water bottle and she leaned her weight on one hip. She looked over at Dan as he took a sip. "Do you always fight like that?" she asked him.

Dan nodded his head. "That's my usual speed without powers. Not many actual bad guys get close enough to get punched," he replied. Over the years he had spared with a number of the Americans when they came to visit London, but Hannah had always been his favorite. She could kick the shit out of you if you let her and talk about something completely different at the same time. It more entertaining than having to listen to the grunts of pain and effort instead.

"Sparing between you and Phil must be fun," she added.

He shrugged. "It can be. Phil is better than me."

"You haven't learned how to beat him in five years?" She looked amused as she pushed her hair into a hair tie.

"It's a give and a take," he said bemusedly, "Phil's good at thinking ahead, so he can usually know what I'm going to do before I do it. But I tend to use more force than he does. So while I don't think I've learned how to _beat_ him, I think we're a pretty even match."

Hannah nodded, and Dan sat against the wall. He took another swig from his water bottle and watched his friend, who had shifted her weight to her other hip. She looked thoughtful– her teeth chomped on her bottom lip and a crease formed between her eyebrows. Dan didn't say anything but instead waited for her to speak up.

"There's something I want to ask you about," she said finally.

"Fire away," he chirped in response.

Hannah cracked a smile, but quickly became serious again. She looked around, but there really wasn't anyone who could overhear them. There were only about four others across the room, and there was no way they would hear Dan and Hannah unless they shouted.

"What's it like to, uh–" Hannah scratched the back of her head, uncomfortable. "Date a teammate?"

Dan raised his eyebrows. Out of all the questions in the world that was not the one he was expecting. He cleared his throat. "Well, it's a little different between Phil and I. We were together before Hawk and Dove was ever a thing," he replied. Alright, that wasn't entirely true. They weren't actually a couple until after everything had gone down in London, and they didn't explicitly _talk_ about it until Dan was out of the hospital, but they had been a team before then, they had been _something_.

Hannah sighed. "Okay, but, still. The logistics; like do you fight about your relationship at work, does it cloud your judgement, does it interfere with your missions at all?"

Tilting his head, Dan pursed his lips in thought. "Well, it doesn't interfere with missions, but that's because we know each other so well. We work well together so we lead together. But it's… a toss up. Sometimes work problems interfere with our relationship," he said.

"Really?" She looked disheartened.

He nodded. "Yeah, we're not very good at separating the two. But we've never worked without the other for very long, so we're kind of a special case." Hannah looked away, and the wrinkle between her eyebrows was back. "Why?" Dan continued hesitantly.

She cleared her throat. "There's, uh, someone I've caught myself eyeing recently," she said, much more bashful and quiet than she usually was.

Dan was intrigued. "In the Trifecta? Who?"

"Ingrid," she whispered in reply.

His eyes went wide. "Really?" he said and Hannah quickly hushed him, although no one would know what they were talking about if they heard him, "For how long?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Not when she first joined… Grace, Mamrie, and I are very meticulous with the hiring process when it comes to personnel in the building. I would never have hired someone just because I thought she was pretty. But–" She paused and looked down, blushing. "It's been several months. And we've worked in very close proximity."

Dan was grinning the entire time. Although, he didn't quite know what to tell her… it might be a bad idea to try and start a relationship with someone you work close to, in case something goes wrong and you still have to talk. Then again, that was a risk he was actively taking with Phil. Splitting up was _always_ a possibility no matter who you were, but Dan liked to think if he and Phil should ever break up –knock on wood they don't– they were used to working together and could still move on like adults. Maybe. They were pretty good at arguing at the present moment.

"I'm going to approach this as your friend," he said with a vague wave of his hand, "Go for it."

Hannah perked up significantly, as if she weren't expecting that answer. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yes. I mean, if you're subtle about it I don't see why you shouldn't test the waters. And if she's not interested, she'll tell you, Ingrid's nice. I mean, for all I know of her." She was Louise's friend, and she had been at the wedding, so she can't be bad. Louise didn't have a mean bone in her body.

She nodded slowly and sat on the floor beside him, crossing her legs. "Okay, then I will make a game plan. I'll share it with Grace and Mamrie for backup," she said decidedly.

"Excellent idea," he agreed with a nod.

The main doors to the gym banged open, revealing Grace and Phil striding in. Dan and Hannah waited patiently as they walked over. "You're sweaty," Phil pointed out.

Dan snorted while Hannah tipped back more water. "Thanks, captain obvious," he retorted and earned a hilarious pout in response. He climbed to his feet and his sparring partner followed.

"We want to show you something," Grace said.

"What?" said Hannah.

"Not _you,_ you work here," said the other, "The other two. I think Hawk and Dove deserve to see the dispatch room."

Hannah nodded enthusiastically. She sidled up beside Grace and the two girls led them from the gym into the hall. Most of the walk was silent, but Dan groaned quietly, holding the place on his ribs where Hannah got through his defenses. She had hit him several times, but her elbow did serious damage. He could feel a giant purple bruise forming.

Phil looked over with a frown. "You okay?"

"Hannah beat me up," he muttered.

He chuckled and grabbed Dan's shoulder, stopping them in the middle of the hallway. "Lift your shirt," he instructed.

Dan did, revealing the angry marks on his ribs from Hannah's jabs. Phil regarded him a moment and then simply rubbed his palms together before leaning in and pressing them to the bruises. The brunette hissed, the contact causing little blooms of icy pain, but soon enough they subsided. Phil stepped away with a proud grin.

"All better?"

Nodding, Dan put his shirt back down. "Thanks," he muttered, "Maybe one day we'll be strong enough to reverse all kinds of injuries."

"That would be the day," Phil agreed. They hurried to catch up with Grace and Hannah at the end of the hall. Luckily they were too engrossed in conversation to notice that the boys had lagged behind anyway.

Without another pause, the two of them were led into an open office that was much like Dan and Phil's back home. There were desks in pods around the room, where personnel sat at computers with headsets on their ears. However, most of the desks were empty. It was interesting to see so many people working for mutants here, since the MGGB didn't employ anyone and their team handled everything. They only got the odd MI5 or MI6 agent sometimes. It was interesting– like the Trifecta was a business.

"Whenever there's a serious mission, a few of us will sit in here and be in constant contact with the team we dispatched," Hannah explained as she gestured grandly to the room, "This is also where we get our emergency calls and listen to the police scanner."

"It's nice," Phil said with a grin as he walked over to survey one of the desks. The workers at the next one over were watching him closely, and when he glanced over and waved, they ducked back behind their monitors with pink cheeks. Dan cleared his throat and stepped a little closer but tried to look very nonchalant about it.

He probably just ended up looking awkward.

Grace had just sat down to show them the computer system when a phone rang loud enough to wake the dead. In addition to the way Hannah and Grace snapped their attention to the person picking it up, Dan figured that was the emergency hotline. In a matter of seconds, the woman who had answered it said, "There's a ship on fire in the San Diego harbor, several crew members stuck inside."

Dan straightened and tried not to look too hopeful. "Fire?" Phil let out a low whistle, looking very interested.

The girls glanced at him, and then exchanged a look, before Hannah said, "Think you can handle it?"

A grin slowly spread on her face, so he let his own excitement show as he nodded. "It's what I'm made for," he replied and nodded towards Phil, "We'll go."

"Tell them we're sending professionals," Grace told the phone operator and then got up to leave the room. Dan and the others quickly followed her. "We'll send you ahead to get the people out. Also, see if you can control the fire and keep it from catching on other boats. We'll send backup to investigate right away as well," she said.

He nodded once. "I hope you have a fast car," Phil commented.

Hannah snorted from behind, and Grace simply shook her head with a knowing smile. "You'll never get anywhere in California in a car, fast or not. We have a better way for you to get there," she said and Dan grinned like a cat.

In no time at all, Hawk and Dove sped faster than eight lanes of traffic on the freeway, riding the coolest motorbikes Dan had ever been on. The one he had in London was amazing, but the speed and gadgets on the one the Trifecta had on hand were only things Americans thought of. The GPS was taking them right to the San Diego harbor, which they would never have been able to find without it, and the girls had been right about the car thing. The traffic in California was _insane_ and that was not an exaggeration like he had assumed it was before this mission. They each had comms in their ears, a direct line to the base, where he knew they were being closely monitored by the girls.

Dan and Phil were forced to stop outside of the harbor where the police had blocked off the area. Dan could smell and see the smoke billowing over the buildings in between him and the ship on fire. He breathed it in as he approached the line, weaving through the crowd of onlookers, and he let it feed his own inner heat.

Dan made it to the tape. An officer looked them up and down in their combat suits, which used to make Dan feel self conscious, but now it made him feel powerful. "Did the Trifecta send you?" the officer asked.

"That would be us," said Dan and they were allowed to duck under the tape.

The ship was much larger than they were expecting. Luckily it was not yet at a huge risk of exploding, but they were still on a time crunch, and not only because there were people inside. At the base of the dock, Hawk and Dove only paused for a moment.

"I'll go in and find the stuck crew," said the former.

"And I'll make this fire doesn't spread," the other added.

Dan nodded once. "See you in five–" A window shattered, raining glass onto the dock. "Make that ten."

So he went in. The entrance near the dock was almost completely engulfed in flames, but he didn't even notice them as he jogged into the corridor. The rest of the mission report he had received at the base said the fire started in the engine room, which trapped a handful of engineers. From all Dan knew about boats that could be anywhere, but what he did know a lot about was fire and he knew fire spread upwards. So he would start looking on this level and work his way down.

He was sure that the people stuck inside were terrified, but Dan had never felt more alive. Full blown fires were not very common, but whenever he got to go to one, he almost never wanted to leave. He understood fire now, he knew how to control it externally and internally, but he would never choose it over the welfare of actual people. But it still poked at him in the back of his head. _Fire, inside and out. Power. Life._

Dan shoved his pyromaniac inner voice right back down.

After shoving a particularly heavy door open, he found the trapped engineers. The room smelled like oil and metal, and the group of them had huddled in the corner on the floor. He could count six. Smoke permeated the air and forced them to try and filter it through their t-shirts. Dan held his breath so he wouldn't produce more and set to work.

This aspect of his powers was pretty new in the grand scheme of things. It was one thing to control the heat already inside of him and be able to push it out at will, but independent fires was entirely different. Dan closed his eyes and released his breath, and while he couldn't stop the black smoke from coming out with it his heat also extended with it. With it he could feel the flames start to succumb to his suppressing them, and grew smaller and smaller until all that was left was the residual heat, now tied with his own. That made it easy for him to pull it back in like the snap of a rubber band. Fire still lingered elsewhere on the ship, he could feel it, but now it was safe to get the engineers out.

And when Dan opened his eyes, they were all staring at him with astonished expressions. The Trifecta didn't have a mutation like his, and it's not like they advertised the visit. "Don't worry, I'm not a witch," he said and waved them forward. It took some coaxing as they were all weak from the smoke inhalation, but he got them up and to follow him, and for safety they kept their shirts over their mouths. Dan may not be affected by the smoke, but they had been in there so long it could have done some damage.

Preceded by a bloom of black smoke, Dan led the engineers into the fresh air and sunlight. EMTs swarmed and took them all to ambulances, and Dan only got out of a trip to the hospital himself because he demonstrated his lungs _created_ smoke. However, Phil was gone.

As if reading his mind, Dan heard his partner's voice. "Up here!" Spinning around, he spotted Phil on the deck of the ship. The fire had been contained, water ran steadily down the sides into the ocean, and Phil looked very proud of himself.

Dan shielded his eyes with his hand. "How long was that?"

Phil shrugged. "Probably about ten minutes." He grinned and waited as Phil iced over the outside of the ship, jumped over the side, and slid back down onto the dock. He left it to melt naturally in the sun and headed over to Dan. "You smell good," he commented, which is what he said every time Dan smelled strongly of fire.

With all of his remaining Hawk swagger he winked. "Thanks, babe," he responded.

Phil shook his head, smiling in reply with a little pink tinge to his cheeks. It took about as long as that exchange for the journalists to be allowed in, and suddenly Hawk and Dove were swarmed with media asking about the fire and how Dan got everyone out and how Phil put out the fire before any gas tanks exploded or even the fire department could get close. They were happy to answer any questions, but they were firm in saying that they only came to help the people. They didn't know anything about how or why the fire started, which cut most of the questioning a little short.

"Some of those stories will go flat," Phil explained as the two of them wandered back towards their bikes and ignored the sound of phones snapping photos as they went, "They don't have a full account."

Dan sniggered. They had enough experience with news reporters now that they knew how things worked. "Grace said she would send a team, right? To figure out the whole thing," he said.

His partner nodded. "For Trifecta records, I'm sure. Although, there will probably be plenty of social media headlines about us tomorrow," he said with a nod.

"Can't wait."

Dan and Phil waited around until the Trifecta showed up in a sleek black car. Connor Franta and Ingrid Nilsen were the ones to come, Ingrid with a full kit to analyze the remnants of the fire. She said it was a precaution, considering what had happened with Clockwork anything could be foul play. The boys shared their story with them before they parted ways, Dan and Phil hopping on their bikes and speeding back to Los Angeles.

* * *

After the boys had time to change and whatnot, Grace drove them from the base to Mamrie's apartment. Hannah had a thermos of soup, ready to hopefully force her friend to feel better with a single can of 'liquid love'. Dan and Phil sat in the back, Phil's phone between them, talking to PJ and Carrie for the updates from the MGGB Tower.

"Everything is going okay, overall," said Carrie enthusiastically, "Trying to remain organized without you two is a little difficult, but we manage. It's not like anyone's poisoned the water supply while you've been gone."

" _Yet!"_ came Chris's muffled addition in the background. There was a thud, and then laughter. Dan and Phil exchanged an amused look.

"That's good, then. We saved people from a burning ship today!" said the latter.

"Make sure you read the LA Times tomorrow," Dan added.

PJ chuckled. "Yeah, I bet Dan was in his element."

He preened. "Damn right," he said. He could still feel the flames licking at his body and warmth spreading in his veins.

The car pulled to a stop. "We're here!" Grace declared and the girls jumped out of the car.

"We're going to let you go, guys, okay? Keep us updated," said Phil while Dan opened the door.

"You got it, Dove," Carrie replied. They said their goodbyes and hung up, and then the boys followed the other two into the apartment building.

Hannah had a spare key (they explained they each had one of the others' places for safety) so they went up without having to be buzzed in. They knocked on the apartment door before letting themselves in.

"Mametown?" Grace singsonged, wandering inside. No answer. She turned to the others. "She must be asleep. Poor thing."

Hannah headed down a hallway, presumably towards Mamrie's bedroom. Dan and Phil followed, and Dan remained in the back of the pack. He didn't know why, but something about this seemed… off. It didn't feel like they were visiting a friend at all. And judging by the way Phil glanced back at him with furrowed eyebrows, he could tell something was different as well.

Hannah knocked on the bedroom door. "Mame? Mamrie?" she whispered. Silence. She visibly swallowed and Grace peered over her shoulder. "Should I try to wake her up? She doesn't usually sleep so heavily…"

Grace nodded and went in, but she had lost all of her former energy as well. Dan and Phil lingered in the doorway, but they could see the bed now. Mamrie was on her side, back to the door, the blanket up to her chin. It shifted slightly, rhythmically– she was breathing, alive.

Hannah sat at the edge of the bed and gently shook Mamrie's shoulder. "Time to wake up," she said gently. Nothing. Hannah glanced back at the others before leaning over to see Mamrie's face.

And she recoiled like she'd seen a ghost.

Grace quickly ran to the other side of the bed. Dan couldn't help it, and he and Phil crowded in too. Grace looked up and pointed. "Look." Mamrie's pillow cases were white, and near where her mouth was it was stained with black spots that leached and bled into the cotton. Dan felt himself pale.

Her napkin had the same spots, albeit smaller and more spaced out, all the way back at Louise's wedding. And he had pushed it aside as a fluke.

Grace looked down at the floor by the bedside table. "There are tissues all over with that black stuff on it," she said. She looked as pale as Dan did. "Do you… think she's coughing it up? She must be, she's said she's had a cough all week."

Hannah swallowed. "I've never heard of anyone coughing up _black_ before," she muttered. The blonde reached over and felt Mamrie's face. "She's burning up, seriously."

"She's got to be sick though," Phil added through his fingers. At some point he had covered his mouth with his hands, from surprise or worry, was unclear. It could even be to keep from catching whatever it was that caused Mamrie to cough up black… liquid, phlegm, _stuff_.

Dan looked at Mamrie's face, mostly covered by her hair. However, he could see her mouth, and there was more of the black stuff on her bottom lip. It was coming from her body in some way. He pursed his lips.

"We'll have to get Louise to look at her, before we go to the hospital. Hopefully she's not on a plane," he said and looked around at all their worried faces, "This is way out of our pay grade." So to speak, anyway. Grace and Hannah nodded. They seemed to have an understanding– whatever they went through in the States to get to their position of power, they agreed that they weren't about to trust any old hospital with a sick mutant over one of their own.

* * *

 **AN: I edited this while drinking wine. Also HEY GUESS WHAT, we have a Pinterest board! Follow 'Hellfire and Maelstrom' by Emmazing15 or give me your username if you would like to be added as a collaborator.**

 **wordsaremything on tumblr.**


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